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Lowell's Emily Desmond to audition for 'The Voice'

By Pete McQuaid, pmcquaid@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/24/2014 02:59:21 PM EST

Emily Desmond has known for a long time that she wanted to be a musician.

"When Emily was in fourth grade, she told my husband and I that she was going to Berklee," said Donna Desmond, Emily's mother. "I asked, 'What are you going to do?' and she said, 'Sing and play guitar.' "

Emily Desmond, who graduated from Lowell High School in the spring of 2012, made it to Berklee College of Music, where she is a sophomore.

Now she's ready to take her next step.

On Sunday she will head to New York City to take part in a private audition for NBC's singing talent show The Voice.

Lowell native Emily Desmond will travel to New York City for a private audition for NBC's singing talent show The Voice. Courtesy photo

On The Voice, contestants go through a layered audition process to get to the final televised rounds, which are filmed in front of a live studio audience. Prospective singers can go to "open-call" tryouts in major cities, where a few lucky ones are chosen from the hordes of contestants to move on to the next round. The ones who make it through the second round get to go to California for the final selections.

Contestants can also send in videos of themselves for consideration, as opposed to going to an open call. Karen Kycia, a close family friend of the Desmonds, sent in a few of Desmond's YouTube videos in October, without telling her.

"I wanted to send it in because she's amazingly talented," said Kycia.

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"I've heard her sing and play since she was younger, and certainly every time she takes the next step she seems to get better and better."

Desmond, 19, was ecstatic to find out she had been chosen for a private audition. She's no stranger to performing live; she's been a regular at open-mic nights at local venues like the Back Page and The Space since she was 14. And she's been through the music-contest process before, having previously tried out for The X-Factor and been chosen as a finalist in Mix 104.

Lowell native Emily Desmond performs at Jump On In in Lowell in 2011. Desmond will travel to New York City on Sunday for a private audition for NBC's singing talent show The Voice. Courtesy photo

But if she's going to make it on a TV show, she's happy it's The Voice.

"At X-Factor, I saw people coming through with crazy costumes and all that," said Emily Desmond. "I feel like The Voice is more about the music and less about the TV."

Donna Desmond said she and her husband David bought Desmond a guitar when she was 11. They set her up for guitar lessons, but soon realized that she was advancing quicker than the pace of her lessons.

"We had no idea what she was doing in her room," said Donna Desmond. "After a year and a half of guitar lessons, I realized she wasn't practicing what she was supposed to be learning in her lessons -- she was in her room writing songs."

The first song she wrote, "Life's A Miracle," was about her brother's friend who died of cancer when he was in first grade.

"The song blew everyone away when they heard it," said Donna Desmond. "It was so mature for someone her age. You know she has some talent when she can write something like that at 11 years old."

For her audition, Emily Desmond has to prepare three cover songs to perform, so she chose ones from her favorite pop-rock acts. She will sing "Stars" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, "Oh, Darling" by The Beatles, and "Vienna" by Billy Joel.

She will travel to New York City on Sunday for the audition, though since she's older than 18, her parents aren't even allowed in the building and will have to wait outside.

"They think I have it in the bag," said Emily Desmond. "But they're my parents."

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